Molly Quinn

When Alexis and Castle hit the road in their Daddy/Daughter crime solving road trip it was as if all my concerns about the show forgetting the value of this dynamic, and the well established character traits, were being addressed. This doesn’t change how I feel about the earlier episodes, but I’m very glad to see the show heading back in a direction I can get behind. Continue reading →

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The balancing act of having characters that grow and evolve, while maintaining the magic chemistry seems to be the trouble for many shows. While certain aspects of season 6, such as Beckett, a talented detective more forward in her career, seem necessary, even temporarily. There’s the case of Alexis’s boyfriend Pi – a strange insertion that throws off the balance more significantly than I realized at first glance. Continue reading →

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While we are still not over the exhilarating events of this year’s season finale, we think it’s about time to take a step back and assess the season as a whole. There were a lot of ups and downs, no doubt about that, but this post will focus on the ups. Here are our five favourite episodes from season 4 of Castle, in order of appearance. Enjoy!

Things happened. Big things. Things that are meaningful and irrevocable and wonderful. So let’s jump right in as I try, like so many fans out there, to make sense of my Castle/Beckett feelings.

We begin with Beckett clinging to the edge of a building, calling out for Castle as she loses her grip. Just as all hope seems lost, we cut to three days earlier. Oh, season finales. After discovering what appears to be a gang-related murder in an alley, Beckett, Castle, and the boys soon discover a link to Montgomery’s home and the files he was trying to keep hidden. Drama, stolen glances, and intensity ensue, highlighting how much Castle, Ryan, and Esposito love Beckett in their own ways. Each of them will do pretty much anything to support Beckett and keep her safe, and we see this play out throughout the episode. Of course, Castle is keeping a secret about the files and the case, and we all know that it’s only a matter of time until it comes out.

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We’re heading in the right direction, people. I mean, sure, we’re celebrating the fact that Castle and Beckett are even talking to each other at all, let alone talking about their feelings, but after the last few episodes we’ll take what we can get. It’s no secret that I was getting a little sick of the constant evading, concealing, and inability to communicate, and I was thoroughly fed up with Castle when he said this would be his last case working with Detective Beckett. I knew it wasn’t going to prove true, but somehow that made it even more annoying. Enough already!

Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I can comment on the actual episode. I felt that “Undead Again” was all about one person knowing better than another and pulling the wool over their eyes. This plays out in the zombie storyline, but also more significantly in Castle and Beckett’s relationship. In terms of the zombies, we (or the characters) are fooled into believing that they might actually be the walking undead. When that theory is debunked, we see the case of one “zombie” being manipulated into committing a crime against his will and without his knowledge. See: pulling the wool over his eyes. As for Castle and Beckett, they simply can’t keep up their charade any longer, and there are many layers of the charade: first and foremost is the fact that they’re in love with each other and not acting on it, second is Beckett hiding from Castle that she heard him say he loved her last year, third is Castle hiding his knowledge that she heard him, and fourth is Castle hiding info about Johanna Beckett’s murder and Kate’s shooting (which will most certainly come up in the finale next week).

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We were all looking forward to “47 Seconds”. It was to be the episode in which something finally happens between Castle and Beckett. And while I suppose something did happen, it’s certainly not anything I am pleased or impressed with. I’m waiting until the end of the season for the writers of Castle to convince me that the events of this episode were justified, because right now they seem like yet another contrived device to keep the two main characters apart.

Allow me to clarify. I’m not talking about Beckett’s secret coming out, because (a) that was bound to happen and (b) it is kind of a big deal. Beckett heard Castle say “I love you” after she was shot in last season’s finale, and neglecting to mention it to him for almost a year is on the list of things you probably shouldn’t do to the man you’re clearly in love with. Thus the main drama of the episode is established, with a bombing setting the stage for Castle and Beckett to ponder how precious and uncertain their time is. It seems like the perfect opportunity for the couple to finally act on their feelings, make out, make babies, do all those things Stana Katic keeps advising for the characters.

Like last week, this review is mostly going to focus on characters and relationships because to be honest I wasn’t particularly interested in the whole double-agent, CIA, massive conspiracy, WWIII plot line. Of course, that’s kind of the norm for me when I watch Castle; I’m much more invested in Rick and Kate’s romance than in any of the cases that they solve. There were definitely some moments I liked in this week’s conclusion to the two-parter, but on the whole I don’t think either “Pandora” or “Linchpin” will break any records for favourite Castle episode.

My main criticism (I’ll get it out of the way now, and then move on to the fun stuff) is that the episode itself was, well, a little bit boring. As far as Castle’s two-part cliff-hangers go, I didn’t like this year’s installment nearly as much as the ones that preceded it. The stakes just didn’t seem as high (or I wasn’t made to feel they were as high), and I know that’s really weird to say given that World War Three was the potential outcome of this episode. I guess what I mean is that a stronger impression is made when the characters’ lives are more directly involved in the case…like the crazy guy murdering people in the name of Nikki Heat, stalking Beckett, and blowing up her apartment in season 2. Even last year’s two-parter felt more personal (though on a much larger scale), perhaps because Castle and Beckett were locked together in a freezer and then faced with a dirty bomb about to blow up in their faces. But mainly I think those episodes worked really well because it was all up to Castle and Beckett to solve the case and save everyone. Here, there were too many double-agents and shifting allegiances to keep track of; Castle and Beckett could barely do anything but observe and get carried along by the CIA. If they have absolutely no clue what’s going on (which they didn’t until the very end of “Linchpin”), then neither do we, and I think that’s what diluted the episode’s overall impact.

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This may be my favourite episode of season 4 so far. We all knew “Cops and Robbers” was going to be a high-stakes episode, but it exceeded my expectations – not really in terms of intensity (although it certainly was intense) but in terms of the way the story was told, the way the characters behaved, and the way the actors brought so much life to it even with the subtlest gestures.

I suppose one way of putting it is that the central characters, especially Castle, Martha, and Beckett, are forced to act according to the very core of their being – the situation strips away their outward displays, quibbles, and assumed personas, and we really see the fundamental essence of their characters come out. This essence might be one that the characters themselves are surprised by, or one that they knew of all along, but the danger and emotion involved in the hostage situation reveals who they truly are.

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There was a lot at stake for Castle’s season 4 premiere. The show has always had a pretty healthy mix of light and dark, and usually the dark episodes offer enough comedic relief so that the overall tone of the show is on track. Last season raised the stakes for Castle’s dark side. Kate Beckett has always carried the demons of her mother’s unsolved murder with her, but last season the investigation turned alarmingly real, dangerous and heartbreaking. This sets different expectations for this season: to handle this darkness and incorporate it into the ongoing story–because how can you not–but also to remain a comedy at heart.

I love the dark Castle as much as the comedy and I’m thrilled to see how this season will incorporate these new challenges. If “Rise” was any indicator of where the season is headed I can’t wait for next week, and the next week (and so on). In a recent interview with Daniel Fienberg on Hitfix, Nathan Fillion talks about the balance between lighthearted comedy and the darker stuff. He spent time with real NYC Homicide cops and says “They’re not brooding, haunted people, tortured by their job and murder. They are very funny. They’re very funny, very relaxed, very light-hearted. It’s just that all of their stories start with, ‘So this guy gets killed…’”. Castle seems to take this truth to heart in their depiction of the fictional precinct and it works beautifully. Continue reading →

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Here at The Viewing Party we spend most of our time discussing the relationships on Castle mostly because it’s the most important part of the show. This week the focus was actually on the case of the week, strangely enough. Like many of the cases on Castle the slice of death was a little odd, sort of funny and had some great twists. I loved to relish in its terrifically inauthentic cheesiness!

When we were first introduced to the idea of pizza sabotage and all the different Nick’s all the same neighbourhood it seemed almost cartoonish reminding me of the dear departed series Pushing Daisies as they dealt with crazy names and candy store sabotage in “Bitter Sweets” (1×08). I did a little research and realized that the Authentic/Original/Terrific Nick mess is actually based on the variety of Ray’s pizza joints in NYC all claiming to be the original Rays. I discovered there is actually a Nick’s Pizza in NYC… and a Big Nick’s too!

I’ve divided this review into two parts; one part will cover the fantastic journey into the seedy underbelly of pizza and heroin in New York City. The other will focus on Alexis, the real challenges she is facing as a teenage girl despite being smart, beautiful, exceptionally kind and well intentioned, and how Beckett’s influence on her life is invaluable.